Has the bubble burst for the soaps?

The demise of Neighbours and the ousting from mainstream dominance of longstanding evening-telly favourites got Mike McGrath-Bryan thinking — what next for the once-inescapable soap opera?

Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan reunited on the set of Neighbours, reprising their roles as Charlene and Scott Robinson as the Australian soap comes to an end after 37 years on screen.

In an age of unlimited access to an array of content, it can sometimes feel unreal to think of the pre-internet age — and how cultural phenomena obtained a ubiquity that you can’t explain in the present day.

The humble soap opera springs to mind — thrown down in front of the telly, with a mind desperate for any route out of the unending penury of homework, your writer as a child was one of millions who grew up with homemade soaps as part of the background noise, like Fair City and the late, lamented Glenroe, as well as more worldly offerings, like escapist Australian teen drama Home and Away, the grit of London-set serial EastEnders, or the working-class bonhomie of Coronation Street.